Ex-Comverse boss arrested in Namibia

From The Fugitive to The Prisoner

By Drew Cullen • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Director, 27th September 2006 23:04 GMT

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Police in Nambia have arrested Jacob 'Kobi' Alexander, the ex-CEO of Comverse Technology, the voicemail software maker, who fled the US he was charged with fraud over backdated stock options.

Alexander, 48 was last spotted in Sri Lanka ten days into his two-month sojourn as The Fugitive, after using Skype to make a voice call.

Alexander is one of three former Comverse execs who are accused of securities fraud. He also alleged to have illegally siphoned of $57m out of the US to Israel, in a money laundering scheme. Investigators seized $45m left in US accounts.

In 2005, Alexander ranked 75th in the Forbes list of CEO compensation at America's 500 biggest companies. His pay that year? A lousy $13,882,700, of which stock gains accounted for $9.6m. Still, this wasn't so bad, considering that the median pay in 2005 for CEOs at big firms in the US telecoms sector was an even lousier $1.7m. ®

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